


I Don't Have a Clue, How to Own it Like You Do

by bIoodbunny



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Explorers of Darkness & Explorers of Sky
Genre: Amnesia, Gen, Sad and Happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:00:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24636469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bIoodbunny/pseuds/bIoodbunny
Summary: in the bad future, three partners manage to catch a break and rest. one totodile which used to be human has some time to ponder their past. slight spoiler warning for alluding to the games major twist.
Kudos: 8





	I Don't Have a Clue, How to Own it Like You Do

**Author's Note:**

> i really love this game and it's honestly such an inspiration to me, even if the writing a lot of the time is kinda wonky and the less is said about how frustrating it can be to play if you just want to enjoy the story the better
> 
> i haven't sat down and played this game from start to finish in a year or two so sorry if the timeline is messed up. realistically this should take place right at the beginning of the "trapped in bad future with grovyle" arc. i also wanted to play around with how heavy the main character/player character's amnesia is and how it affects them, like forgetting their own name, etc.
> 
> title is from feelin' so matroshyka by the scary jokes.

_“It’s cold.”_ She felt her tone was far-too whiny - like a spoiled little brat throwing a tantrum because they didn’t get the toy they wanted - but the words came out as they wanted to, unheeded. 

She had to admit, though. Even curled up betwixt her partner’s feathers and the thief – no, _their friend_ (supposedly. It was still so jarring to know the truth of what had happened. Even she was not fully accustomed) Grovyle, the air (if she could call it that- there was no breeze here) was still and chilled her to the bone. 

“I know.” Grovyle said without thinking much, in his usual matter-of-fact way. 

She began to wonder about this future. She was laying right in the thick of it, after all. The nothingness, the quietness, the aforementioned cold. 

With all this cold, was the future ever warm, ever even _lukewarm?_

“Grovyle.” Her words came out with the consistency of dirt. “Was it ever warm here? Did there use to be wind?” Dirt. 

“Long time ago.” Grovyle’s words were quick, hushed, and to-the-point. You would think they were always being chased with the way the older one spoke. 

In a way, they were. Just not now, at least. Right now, they could just- 

_Rest._ The word hung in her mind. She didn’t feel very tired before, what with dusknoir (she still couldn’t believe he had lied to them like that!) and his cohorts fast on their heels. 

But, alone with her thoughts, the tiredness she had tried to ignore crept up on her. 

Her last salvage of warmth was taken away from her as her partner stirred. 

“What’re you guys talkin’ about?” She chirped, yet slurred. She leaned into Grovyle’s face. He grimaced momentarily, yet softened. 

“Go back to sleep.” Grovyle pushed the orange-red pile of feathers away. “It’s not important.” 

The pile of feather’s beads of eyes shone defiantly. 

Grovyle knew not to argue with the kid. His face seemed to say “ _Fine._ Don’t come complaining to me when you’re too tired.” 

“I’ll go back to sleep.” The torchic’s doll-like eyes glowed with a confident stillness to them. “If you read me a bedtime story.” A giggle. 

Grovyle huffed. “You’re a little old for a bedtime story.” Grovyle’s green snout emerged from the darkness, his usually crescent-slit eyes were more like half-moons now that they were trying to adjust from the lack of light. “ _Wait_ \- how old are you, even?” 

The torchic held up her stumpy little wings. “11.” Feathers fixed in an approximation of the number. 

“You’re holding up ‘10’.” Grovyle shook his head. 

“Oh.” The torchic’s cheer faded a bit. 

“Anyway.” Grovyle stopped momentarily. He couldn’t believe he was doing this, but with the two pairs of eye staring straight up at him, waiting for his voice – he couldn’t ignore it. 

After all, they had gone through so much, just the three of them. He’d allow them a moment of respite. 

“A long, long time ago...” Grovyle started. 

“That’s so cliché!” The torchic squawked at him. 

Grovyle’s smile was weary. “Ok.” 

“In the distant past,” Grovyle looked at the torchic with warming eyes as if to say “there, is that better?” 

“There lived a human girl and her pokemon partner.” 

Hearing these words, something was sparked within the totodile’s mind, but she didn’t know why. In the foggy recesses of her memory, something called out to her, a sense of déjà vu. 

“They did everything together. They slept in the same bed, and even ate at the same table.” 

Her mind called out to her again, _“don’t you remember?”_

“Something was very special about this pokemon. He could speak.” 

The torchic’s face was skeptical. _Couldn’t all pokemon talk?_

Grovyle answered the torchic’s internal question. “I know what you’re all thinking. ‘Can’t all pokemon talk?’ Well, this story takes place when not all of us could talk.” 

The totodile’s memory still ate at her thoughts. _“Why? What do I remember? Why can’t I make it out?”_ She unknowingly started to claw at her snout. _“Please, just tell me.”_

“But, then the girl had to make a sacrifice for the greater good.” 

The totodile wanted to scream. Why was this familiar? She looked up to the heavens, as if preaching to a god for an answer. _“Please, I want closure.”_

_“I- want to go home.”_ She didn’t even know where home was, really. She had spent countless nights staring outside the guild window, awake, trying to jog her brain for her past, the faces of any family, friends. Nothing ever seemed to be concrete. She wanted an abstract concept. That’s what she wanted. She slumped onto the cold dirt. 

Grovyle continued. There was a longing, reverent look in his eyes. “The world would end if she did not go through with it. Her partner was very unhappy, but he knew deep down it had to be done.” 

Grovyle’s eyes grow foggy. The totodile twisted her body away, from the warm bodies to a dark corner of the cave. She didn’t want to listen anymore. 

“But, the girl made one final promise to her partner. When this was all over, she would go looking for him, no matter what.” 

The torchic moped. “Is that the end?” The totodile would be glad if it was. She was getting a headache. 

Grovyle choked. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen the end.” 

The torchic shot back with her usual snappy demeanor. “Why tell a story with no end?!” 

Grovyle just looked at her with his fogged up eyes. He blinked away some moisture that was grasping at the edges. “I don’t know any others.” 

“Whatever.” The torchic stomped over next to the totodile’s crumpled up body. The totodile felt a sudden sharp pain in her side. 

“ _Ow!_ What’d you do that for?” 

“You’re being all mopey again.” The totodile snorted at her partner. 

“I’m trying to think. I might be getting some of my memory back.” 

“Really? That’s great!” 

“ _Shh!_ ” Grovyle was back to his grumpy old self. “Just because we’re safe for right now doesn’t mean they’ve stopped chasing us!” 

The torchic and totodile both ignored his reprimands. 

“It’s very foggy though. I’m getting all this- uh- déjà vu. But I don’t know what for. It’s so weird.” 

The torchic puffed. “So, you’re really still stuck?” 

“Yup.” The totodile’s scales looked a little less vibrant. “ _Anyway_ \- we should get to bed.” 

They both yawned. A soft little laugh escaped the totodile’s snout. It made her feel good, and warm, even if it was something so small. 

I guess all this craziness had dulled my senses a bit. I feel like I used to be a happy person. The totodile curled up next to her partner like they had been before, and grovyle stayed by the wayside, half-awake and watchful like he usually was. 

“Hey, Toto, I have one last thing to ask you.” The torchic drew in closer to her partner. The totodile reflexively crawled closer to this source of heat. She wondered why grovyle didn’t join them and warm himself up a bit, but he probably had his reasons. 

He was the strongest and oldest of the three, so someone must keep watch while the others could rest, she supposed. 

Wait, she just realized, did she just call me “Toto”? She hadn’t even been able to recall her name, but she really didn’t mind. She was fine with everybody just referring to her as “she”, or “you there, totodile girl!” 

She winced a bit, recalling cranky old chatot’s shrill nails-on-a-chalkboard voice. 

“ _Um..._ ” The torchic fidgeted, fearing she had upset her partner. “You never gave me your name, so I made one up. D-do you like it?” 

The totodile honestly thought it was a bit childish, but she knew she couldn’t be so curt with the girl. “It’s- _nice._ ” 

“You don’t like it?” The torchic pouted a bit. “I’ll come up with something better! Like you did when we named our guild.” 

Oh, yeah. The guild. The totodile wondered how the others were doing back home... hopefully safe and warm in their beds, unlike what she and her partners were going through now. 

She felt a bit sad, remembering bidoof’s wide eyes and big, naïve smile. She hoped he hadn’t missed them too much. 

“Team Fire and Ice is waaay better than ‘Team Buddies’, looking back!” The torchic giggled. 

“Haha, yeah.” The totodile smiled wearily. “Yeah.” The torchic yawned again. The totodile followed suit. “W-what was that thing you wanted to ask me, again?” 

The torchic looked her partner up and down. “I wanted to ask,” The torchic expression looked troubled, face feathers furrowed. 

“If you ever get your memory back, you’ll still stay with me, right?” The totodile was taken aback. She never thought about that. She felt a bit uncaring and selfish, and beat herself up over it a lot, but she honestly wanted to return back to her old life (whatever her old life was) when it was all said and done. 

“Yeah. I’ll stay with you as long as I can.” She couldn’t reveal her true feelings, yet again. 

“Good, cuz I like you.” 

“Me too. Goodnight.”


End file.
